Article of neckwear with suspended ornament



Dec. 28, 1965 L. L. LESS 3,225,358

ARTICLE OF NECKWEAR WITH SUSPENDED ORNAMENT Original Filed Oct. 4, 1962INYENTOR. LOUIS L. Less ATTORNEY 5' United States Patent 3,225,358ARTICLE OF NECKWEAR WITH SUSPENDED ORNAMENT Louis L. Less, Clinton,Iowa, assignor to One-in-Hand Tie Company, Clinton, Iowa, a partnershipof Iowa Original application Oct. 4, 1962, Ser. No. 228,378, now

Patent No. 3,167,784, dated Feb. 2, 1965. Divided and this applicationMay 20, 1964, Ser. No. 379,773

2 Claims. (Cl. 2-150) This invention relates to neckwear, and moreparticularly to neckties having ornaments depending from them. Thisapplication is a division of my copending application Serial No.228,378, filed October 4, 1962, now Patent 3,167,784, issued February 2,1965.

An object of this invention is to provide articles of neckwear whichhave a new and unusual appearance.

A further object of the invention is to provide such articles ofneckwear which are convertible, and may be Worn in a number of difierentWays, each presenting a different appearance. A still further object isto provide an easy method of making the neckwear of the invention.

The invention may be understood by reference to the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the drawings, which form a part ofthe specification, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of the torso of a person wearing an article ofneckwear constructed in accordance with one embodiment of thisinvention, illustrating the general appearance of the article ofneckwear when worn;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of an article of neckwear constructed inaccordance with one embodiment of this invention, and comprising ashort, pre tied necktie with a detachable ornament;

FIG. 3 is a rear elevation of a portion of the neckwear shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a front elevation of a portion of the neckwear shown in FIGS.2 and 3, with the ornament removed;

FIG. 5 is a rear elevation of that portion of the neckwear shown in FIG.4;

FIG. 6 is a front elevation of a portion of the neckwear of theembodiment shown in FIG. 2, with the ornament removed and with the endof the necktie arranged in a slightly different fashion than shown inFIGS. 4 and 5;

FIG. 7 is a rear elevation of that portion of the embodiment shown inFIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a rear elevation of a portion of another embodiment of theneckwear of this invention, in which the necktie has no tail;

FIG. 9 is a rear elevation of a portion of the embodiment shown in FIG.8, with an ornament attached thereto;

FIG. 10 is a front elevational view of another embodiment of neckwear inaccordance with this invention; and

FIG. 11 is a side elevational view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 10,with the ornament removed.

FIG. 1 illustrates the overall appearance created by the neckwearembodiment of FIGS. 2-7 when worn in the manner shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.The neckwear comprises two parts: A shorty tie portion and an ornament21 depending from its end. The novel nad unusual appearance of theneckwear of this embodiment is due both to the shortness of the tie andto the ornament depending from the end of it. While conventional tieshave varying lengths, they customarily eXtend from the neck of thewearer down to a point close to the top of his pants (or the top of hisbelt). There are various shorty type ties on the market, but these areinvariably of the string type; that is, they are customarily constructedof a very thin or string-like material, and do not use a conventionalknot. They are clearly distinguishable and not at all related to, theconventional four-inhand tie. The tie portion of the neckwear of thisand many of the other embodiments of this invention, on the contrary,provides a knot and depending tie portion which is identical inappearance to the conventional fourin-hand tie in every respect save forits length. The unique appearance is obtained by making the length ofthe tie, from the top of the knot (which is normally the same as the topof a collar of the wearer) to the bottom of the depending portion,susbtantially less than half the distance from the top of the collar tothe top of the pants (or top of the belt) of a normal adult wearer.inches.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-7, the neckwear embodiment shown therein may beseen to comprise a tie having a knot 22 and a depending portioncomprising a front portion 23 and a tail 24. The tie may conveniently beof the ready-tied type shown in FIG. 2, formed upon a knot formingdevice 25, although it may be of the conventional self-tied type aswell. However, the relatively accurate positioning of the ends of frontportion 23 and tail 24 with respect to each other required forattachment of ornament 21 make the use of the ready-tied type moreconvenient.

Ornament 21 (FIGS. 2 and 3) comprises a medallion 26 and a tie-attachingloop 27, attached to it. Medallion 26 may be of any desired ornamentalconfiguration, as it comprises that portion of ornament 21 designed tobe displayed.

Since the particular configuration of knot forming device 25 or of knot22 forms no part of this invention insofar as it relates to neckwearstructures, the knot and the knot forming device have been omitted fromFIG. 3 and most of the other figures. As may be best seen in FIG. 3,front portion 23 is of conventional width, having two generally parallelsides 28. Toward the bottom end of front portion 23, generally parallelsides 28 merge into converging sides 29 (FIGS. 3 and 4) which meet in apoint. Similarly, tail 24 has generally parallel sides 32 ending inmerging sides 33 which meet in a point. Tail 24 may be slightly narrowerthan front portion 23, as shown in FIGS. 2-7, or it may be ofsubstantially the same width, but in either case it is adapted tocompletely underlie front portion 23 in the same manner as the tail of aconventional four-in-hand tie. Ornament 21 may be attached to the end ofthe tie, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, by bringing the pointed end of frontportion 23 upward and to the rear, passing it through loop 27, andattaching it to the bottom of tail 24. The ends of front portion 23 andtail 24 are attached in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, by a snap 34. Asmay be seen in FIG. 5, where the ornament has been removed, snap 34comprises two halves, 35 and 36, with the former being attached to therear of front portion 23 adjacent to the pointed end thereof and thelatter similarly attached to the rear of tail 24 adjacent to its pointedend.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the width of loop 27 is less than thewidth of front portion 23 of the tie, and therefore the inside of loop27 is engaged by converging sides 29 and supported thereby, resulting inthe tieengaging loop 27 being pulled up somewhat behind front portion 23(as viewed from the front in FIG. 2) so that only a small portion of itis in view, presenting a neat appearance. Alternatively, loop 27 couldbe sufiiciently wide so that it would be supported, instead of byconverging sides 29, by the fold formed at the bottom of front portion23 by the turned-up end.

The versatility of this neckwear embodiment is illus- The length maytypically be about five or six trated by the two optional methods ofwear shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, and in FIGS. 6 and 7, respectively. FIGS. 4and 5 show front and rear views, respectively, in which the ornament hasbeen removed, snap 34 opened, and the tie is worn with pointed ends,differing from a conventional pointed-end four-in-hand type tie only inits short length. In FIG. 5, dotted line 37 illustrates the line alongwhich front portion 23 is folded when its end is brought upwardly and tothe rear and snap-fastened to tail 24.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are front and rear views, respectively, of this neckwearembodiment worn in yet another fashion. The ornament 21 has beenremoved, and the tie portion is worn with front 23 and tail 24 snappedtogether, resulting in a squared-01f end.

Thus, it will be seen that the neckwear embodiment shown in FIGS. 2through 7 is highly versatile, capable of being worn so as to providethree separate and distinct appearances. The snap-engaging feature, inaddition to providing support for ornament 21 and permittingalternatively a pointed or squared-off end, is also adapted, when thesnaps are engaged, to maintain the alignment of the front and tailportions of the tie, preserving a neat appearance.

FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate a neckwear embodiment in which the tie portionis of short length, as is the embodiment of FIGS. 2-7, and comprisesonly a single depending portion 40, withno tail; and which may be worneither with or without an attached ornament. Depending portion may be ofconventional tubular construction, having a seam 41 running verticallydown the back and having roughly parallel sides 42 which merge near thebottom of the tie into converging sides 43, which form a point at thebottom of the tie. Upper and lower halves 44 and 45, respectively, of asnap fastener 46 are attached to the rear of tie portion 40. The uppersnap half 44 is shown in FIG. 8 attached at the junction of the bottomof seam 41 where it meets diverging edges 47 which connect with sides42. The lower half of snap 46 is attached to the rear of dependingportion 40 adjacent to the point formed by converging sides 43. This tiemay be worn as shown in FIG. 8, without an attached ornament and withthe snap unfastened; in which case its appearance from the front will beidentical to that of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4.

The tie shown in FIG. 8 may also be worn without an attached ornament byfolding the bottom of depending portion 40 up and to the rear andfastening the two halves 44 and 45 of snap 46. This transforms it into asquare-ended tie, the appearance of which from the front is identical tothe embodiment shown in FIG. 6.

The tie of FIG. 8 may also be worn with an attached ornament, as shownin the rear elevational view of FIG. 9. Note that the method ofattachment of the ornament to the tie in FIG. 9 is similar to theattachment of ornament 21 to the tie, as shown in FIG. 3. However, inFIG. 9, the tie is shown in combination with an ornament having asilghtly different configuration of tie-attaching means than loop 27 ofornament 21, as shown in FIG. 3. The ornament of FIG. 9 comprises amedallion 51 to which is attached a tie-attaching loop 52 comprising ahorizontally disposed bar-like portion 53 attached to the rear ofmedallion 51, arms 54 extending upwardly and outwardly from the ends ofbar 53 and bent over at their ends into horizontal, inwardly extendingportions 55. Loop 52 is open, there being a space between the ends ofthe two horizontally extending portions 55. The ornament is attached tothe tie by folding the bottom of depending portion 40 to the rear andupwardly, passing it through loop 52, and fastening together the twohalves 44 and 45 of snap fastener 46. Here, as was the case withornament 21 in FIG. 3, the the width of loop 52 is less than the widthof depending portion 40, and therefore the sides of the loop are engagedby, and the loop is supported by, converging sides 43. Because of theopening between the ends of horizontally extending arms 55, snap 46 neednot be disconnected in order to attach or remove the ornament; the tiematerial may be slipped through the opening in the loop.

The embodiment of FIGS. 10 and 11 is like that of FIGS. 8 and 9, in thatit has a necktie of the same short length, whose depending portioncomprises only a front portion with no tail. Front portion 57 is definedby two substantially parallel sides 59 and a horizontal bottom edge 58,giving the tie a squared-off appearance. Depending portion 57 isfabricated of more than one thickness of material, so that it may besaid to possess an outside and an inside. Provision for suspending anornament from the tie is made by providng two holes 60, one in each ofthe sides 59 (shown in FIG. 11) adjacent bottom edge 58, and extendingfrom the exterior of the tie to the interior.

The ornament comprises medallion 61, to the rear of which are attachedtwo outwardly and upwardly extending arms 62, which latter areterminated by two horizontal, inwardly extending arms 63 which do notmeet. Arms 63 fit into holes 60 to suspend medallion 61 below the end ofthe tie. The space between the ends of horizontal arms 63 premits thetie material to be slipped off of the arms, making the medallionremovable. This embodiment may be worn with the ornament attached, asshown in FIG. 10, or as a square-ended shorty tie without the ornament,as in FIG. 1.

What is claimed is:

1. An article of neckwear comprising, in combination a necktie includinga knot and a portion depending from said knot,

said depending portion terminating in a lower end which, when the tie isworn with said knot at the wearers collar, is located at a pointsubstantially less than half the distance from the top of the collar tothe beltline of the average wearer,

said depending portion comprising at least two thicknesses of materialdefining an interior and an exterior and being provided with a pluralityof apertures extending from said exterior into said interior adjacentsaid lower end; and

an ornament suspended from said lower end of said depending portion ofsaid necktie, said ornament comprising a medallion, and

attaching means secured to said medallion and ining means engaged insaid apertures, whereby said medallion is suspended from said dependingportion of said necktie. 2. An article of neckwear according to claim 1,wherein said depending portion includes two substantially vertical,substantially parallel sides and said apertures include two opposedapertures located each in a different one of said sides, and saidattaching means comprises two arms each having a generally horizontallyextending upper end portion and a lower end portion,

said lower end portions of said arms each being secured to saidmedallion, said upper end portions of said arms each being engaged in adifferent one of said opposed apertures.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,860,346 11/1958Siebler et a1 2146 X FOREIGN PATENTS 894,954 4/ 1962 Great Britain.467,469 12/ 1951 Italy.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

1. AN ARTICLE OF NECKWEAR COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION A NECKTIE INCLUDINGA KNOT AND A PORTION DEPENDING FROM SAID KNOT, SAID DEPENDING PORTIONTERMINATING IN A LOWER END WHICH, WHEN THE TIE IS WORN WITH SAID KNOT ATTHE WEARER''S COLLAR, IS LOCATED AT A POINT SUBSTANTIALLY LESS THAN HALFTHE DISTANCE FROM THE TOP OF THE COLLAR TO THE BELTLINE OF THE AVERAGEWEARER, SAID DEPENDING PORTION COMPRISING AT LEAST TWO THICKNESS OFMATERIAL DEFINING AN INTERIOR AND AN EXTERIOR AND BEING PROVIDED WITH APLURALITY OF APERTURES EXTENDING FROM SAID EXTERIOR INTO SAID INTERIORADJACENT SAID LOWER END; AND AN ORNAMENT SUSPENDED FROM SAID LOWER ENDOF SAID DEPENDING PORTION OF SAID NECKTIE, SAID ORNAMENT COMPRISING AMEDALLION, AND ATTACHING MEANS SECURED TO SAID MEDALLION AND INING MEANSENGAGED IN SAID APERTURES, WHEREBY SAID MEDALLION IS SUSPENDED FROM SAIDDEPENDING PORTION OF SAID NECKTIE.